The next stop in the circuitous route towards a final course for commencement of the landmark Helleniko privatization comes at the Council of State (CoS), where a recently signed presidential decree will be debated and up for approval.
Greece's highest administrative court must now provide its approval of the master plan for what looms as the country's biggest ever real estate development. The presidential decree was signed last month, in the presence of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and nearly half the Cabinet.
The highlights include a provision transforming the small promontory of Aghios Kosmas, which lends its name to the seafront at the southeast Athens site, into an official archaeological site that will be accessible to the public.
In terms of the all-important building co-efficients, the maximum allowed building surfaces - high-rise structures included - will be 2.7 million square meters. The latter figure, in fact, includes the surface of a handful of buildings at the Helleniko expanse declared as preserved sites, as well as buildings belonging to the remaining state services.
Building coverage also cannot exceed 35 percent of the entire site, which for decades hosted Athens' only airport, along with an airbase and other facilities, including Athens 2004 Olympic venues. The same figure for the seafront is 15 percent, with one kilometer, in length, of the Aghios Kosmas beachfront to be left untouched by coastal development.
A "metropolitan park", a long coveted goal for the congested greater Athens area, will be unified and accessible to the public, with a total expanse of just over two million square meters.
